Hard butter used in substitution for cacao butter is generally classified into a tempering hard butter and a non-tempering hard butter.
The tempering hard butter is made from similar fats having a structure of symmetrical triglyceride closely resembling the cacao butter so that it can be easily blended with the cacao butter and is called CBE (cacao butter equivalent).
On the other hand, the non-tempering hard butter resembles the cacao butter in melting property, but extremely differs in a structure of oil-and-fat and is roughly classified into a lauric acid type and a non-lauric acid type. Both of the lauric acid and non-lauric acid types have a low compatibility with the cacao butter, but are lower in price than the cacao butter and have a good workability since a complicated tempering work is not needed so that those are widely used in confectionery and bakery industries.
Of the non-tempering hard butter, a lauric acid type hard butter is known, the hard butter typically being obtained by hydrogenating and extremely hardening a hard portion obtained by fractionating a palm kernel oil. This kind of hard butter has an extremely sharp melting property, but the blend ratio of cacao butter should be decreased as much as possible since it has an extremely bad compatibility with the cacao butter so that chocolates using this become poor in cacao flavor. Further, there is a disadvantage that the hard butter comprises not less than 50 mass % of a lauric acid as the constituent fatty acid so that it becomes extremely poor in the flavor when being hydrolyzed in a poor state of preservation.
Of the non-tempering hard butter, a non-lauric acid type hard butter is also called a trans-acid type hard butter, and the following hard butter is known, the hard butter typically being obtained by isomerizing-hydrogenating a liquid oil such as a palm olein having a low melting point or a soybean oil, and the hard butter being a hard portion or a medium-melting portion obtained by that the isomerized-hydrogenated one is further fractionated as necessary. Although the non-lauric acid type hard butter has a melting property lacking in sharpness in comparison with the lauric acid type hard butter, it has a better compatibility with the cacao butter than the lauric acid type hard butter so that it can be blended relatively more than the lauric acid type hard butter. However, the non-lauric acid type hard butter comprises a good deal of trans-fatty acid so that it has been kept away from being used since it was recognized that the trans-fatty acid harms health.
Therefore, the development of a non-lauric acid type non-tempering hard butter is required, the hard butter having a sharp melting property (meltability in the mouth), a good compatibility with the cacao butter, and a low trans-fatty acid content.
As the non-lauric acid type hard butter having a low trans-fatty acid content, for example, a hard butter is known, which contains a mixture of a slightly-hydrogenated oil of an oil-and-fat being rich in SUS type triglyceride and an oil-and-fat being rich in SSU type triglyceride (refer to Patent Literature 1).
Further, as the non-lauric acid type non-tempering hard butter containing no trans-fatty acid, a hard butter mixed with a palm medium-melting part and a fractionated medium-melting part of a transesterification oil of a palm stearin (refer to Patent Literature 2) and a non-tempering hard butter including SOS type triglyceride and SSO type triglyceride in a predetermined range where solid fat index and St/P are set to a predetermined range (refer to Patent Literature 3) are known.